A new lease of life for the Devil

Stories of satanism, heaving bodices and black magic by Dennis Wheatley are to be repackaged and re-released.

Books such as The Devil Rides Out and To the Devil - A Daughter, written between 1933 and 1977, have been granted new life following a deal struck last month between Wheatley's grandson and Chorion, the company that owns the rights to the works of Agatha Christie and Enid Blyton. Fresh editions of Wheatley's popular tales of horror, romance and historical skulduggery and television serialisations are now planned.

'Every one of his books was a bestseller,' said Dominic Wheatley. 'You could say he was the Jeffrey Archer of his day, without the bad bits.'

When the author died in 1977, Dominic was 18 and working abroad on a holiday job set up by his high-living grandfather. 'He was 80, so he had had a good innings, especially as in those days they all smoked and drank so much,' said Dominic. 'But when any author dies, the name usually falls away for a while.'

He added: 'There is a huge amount of material there and Chorion have got some good ideas. If they can get boys to read, that will be a great thing. They need to find a way of abridging the books into slimmer volumes that are more appropriate for 14-year-olds,' he said, adding that he was once among the legion of British boys who first read these stories 'by torchlight under the bedclothes'.

'They weren't considered entirely suitable. They were scary and you weren't supposed to read it,' he said.